misplaced pencils / short pencils

bib overalls with a pencil pocket in the front. also boxes of pencils all over the shop. when i make test fits for box joints from scrap when i get the fit right i then make 2 more sides and it becomes a pencil box. i have them everywhere

-- Retired and lovin it

I usually like to keep mine on the floor, preferably safely tucked in a hidden cubby behind one of my machines…

David

-- There is little that is simple when it comes to making a simple box.

Shop apron with chest pocket made for holding pencils and a 6” Starrett/lufkin type scale/ruler. Apron also has generic pockets for rulers, smokes etc.
Got mine at Woodcraft. Its a Blakader brand. Great apron.

Step 1- Go to target and buy a 50 pack of mechanical pencils (~$5.00)
Step 2- Place a few pencils on every horizintal surface in your shop.
Step 3- Rinse, repeat when you start having trouble finding a pencil.

I use mechanical pencils with a pocket clip.
I still wear my safari clothes, especially vests, from my days in Africa. So, I have a lot of pockets. :)

Blessings,
Bro. Tenzin, OFI

-- 温故知新

I have about 50 pecils laying about… I can still never find them when I want them… even when they are in my pocket

-- Rome wasn't built in a day... but I wasn't on that job? ... http://www.wackywoodworks.co.nz

Pencils are wherever you don’t need them and never where you need them… Murphy’s Law, I think.
Seriously, I put one wherever I think I might need them… many mechanical pencils… usually, they are not there when I do need them. You need LOTS of pencils.

-- "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." Voltaire

There is now one stubby pencil in my ShopVac.

I’m calling it a loss.

-- -- Neil

Do you have a lathe? Here’s what I do.http://lumberjocks.com/projects/47408

I leave these scattered around the house and shop.

-- You can lead a horse to water, but you can't tie his shoes. Blaze Foley

I have attached empty Pedisure bottles all over the place and fill them with my favorite pencil (Lee Valley B lead). I also have one of those magnet do dads that let you stick one to your shirt using an attached metal clip. I have gotten to where I remember to reattach it maybe fifty percent of the time now.

-- "Never measure......cut as many times as necessary." - PeteMoss

+1 with JimC; shop apron. Helps me keep everything handy (pencils, eraser, sharpie, 4” double square, measuring tape, 6” steel ruler, marking gauge, marking knife, and remote for my dust collector) It also helps protect your clothes.

-- John

Neil – c’mon, waste not want not. You can still save that pencil in your shopvac.

I like most of us here have waaayyy more than one pencil lying around the shop.
I have an pencil box that also holds pilot drills, screwdriver tips, a couple of steel rules, etc. When I see a pencil lying on the bench or the tablesaw or anywhere else in the shop I’ve almost trained myself to return it to it’s home.

On a jobsite, I use carpenter pencils and keep two in the pencil pocket on my toolbelt and I’ve almost trained myself to return those everytime I use them.

Mike

-- Mike - In Fort McMurray Alberta

Like Canuck, I wear bib overalls just about every day of the year. They’re quite comfortable – especially if you don’t button the buttons on the side of the waist. That’s the way I do it. I do most of the maintenance on the equipment in our molding plant and I can put a ton of tools in all of my pockets – especially when I’m doing electrical work. I can put my hammer in the loop on my leg and my linesman’s pliers in the little scabard pocket on the other leg. Just like my suspenders do the shoulder straps distribute all of the weight properly. I’ve always got 2 no. two pencils in my bib pockets and can sharpen them with my knife when they get dull. I don’t know who invented overalls but they sure did know what the hell they were doing. I guess it was Levi Strauss or Sears Roebucks that invented them. I’ve been wearing overalls for about 35 years now. I don’t know why more working men don’t wear them.

helluvawreck

https://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com

-- helluvawreck aka Charles, http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com

Working men AND non-working men.

Bagtown: Oh, alright.

But if you don’t see me posting in the next day or so … you’ll know where to look for me :-)

Overalls ? The last thing that stands between me and a big old beer gut IS pants and a belt. Let THAT go, and … oh … I shudder to think ;-)

-- -- Neil